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Sony Plans to Expand First-Party Development Pipeline

And That Doesn’t Just Mean God of War

At the recent Q&A session at Investor Day hosted by Sony Corporation in Tokyo, Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO John Kodera provided some information on the company’s plans to create more first-party games for PlayStation consoles.

Kodera spoke about what’s in development at first-party studios, suggesting that there are “a few items” in development. But compared to the fiscal year 2017, which runs from April 2017 to March 2018, and the current fiscal year 2018, from April 2018 to March 2019, the pipeline is going to be “improved and increased.”

Kodera also claims that investing in first-party games should not be taken as strictly increasing IPs like God of War or Horizon Zero Down, and said that “successful and powerful” IPs should be made into franchises so that “the business associated with them can be expanded.”

In terms of portable gaming, Kodera believes that the next Sony console might be closely integrated, although it’s “not yet the right stage to discuss specific hardware plans.”

“In my opinion, rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable,” he said during a roundtable interview in Tokyo. “We want to think about many options.”